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LOS ANGELES — Soda already has been blamed for making kids obese. Now, new research blames
sugary drinks for behavioral problems in children.

Analyzing data from 2,929 families, researchers linked soda consumption to aggression, attention
problems and social withdrawal in 5-year-olds. They published their findings in the
Journal of Pediatrics on Friday.

Although earlier studies have shown an association between soft-drink consumption and aggression
in teens, none had investigated whether a similar relationship existed in younger children.

To that end, Columbia University epidemiologist Shakira Suglia and her colleagues examined data
from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which followed 2,929 mother-child pairs in 20
large U.S. cities.Mothers answered questions about behavior problems in their children. They also
reported how much soda their kids drank on a typical day.

Suglia and her colleagues found that even at the age of 5, 43 percent of the kids consumed at
least one serving of soda per day, and 4 percent drank four servings or more.

The more soda kids drank, the more likely their mothers were to report that the kids had
problems with aggression, withdrawal and staying focused on a task. For example, children who
downed four or more servings of soda per day were more than twice as likely to destroy others’
belongings, get into fights and physically attack people, compared with kids who didn’t drink soda
at all.

Even after adjusting for the potential influence of socioeconomic factors, maternal depression,
intimate-partner violence and other environmental variables, the researchers still saw a strong
association between soda consumption and behavior. “That was pretty striking to us,” Suglia
said.

But the study has its limitations, she noted. For one, it relies on self-reported data, which
can be unreliable. Furthermore, it doesn’t prove that soda causes behavioral problems in kids.

The new findings add to mounting evidence of soda’s negative health effects.

“We already know soda is not the healthiest option for kids,” she said. “This is another reason
to be concerned and to limit soda among adolescents and younger children.”